Monthly Archives: June 2014

Today’s musings will be short. I want to mostly post a bunch of pics I took at the beach. But first… a bit about going to the beach.

I don’t care how old you are, a beach day makes you a teenager again… well, at least it does me. I want to go get a surfboard and wow everyone with my skills. ‘Cept I never had great surfer skills. I always went off to a secluded area where I could try to surf with no one watching. These days I look for a secluded area for different reasons… but that’s for another tale.

I got to be “OK” as a surfer, but never more than that. What was most important is that you were “cool” just carrying a surfboard… or “cool” sitting on the beach with a surfboard… or “cool” just driving around town with a surfboard. Maybe that’s what I’ll do now. I’ll get a surfboard to carry around to be cool. I’ll have to find a secluded beach to see if I can still even stand up on the surfboard… of course knowing where a secluded beach is has other “advantages”.

In the past, part of the reason we all went to the beach was to get a tan. Today, going to the beach is vastly different for most folks… we are scared of bad things the sun can do to you. Everyone seems to slather SPF # ten-zillion all over themselves. Not me. I still go out and try to get “some sun”. I do carry Coppertone with me so that I don’t get sun burned, but protection isn’t the only reason for specifically using Coppertone… it’s because of the smell. Nothing says “Beach, Sun & Surf” to me more than the smell of Coppertone.

So… today I went down to the beach. I don’t have a surfboard, but I do have a “boogie board”. The surf is kinda flat in this region, so it’s about 50/50 if you would be able to go surfin’. But a “boogie board” is good about 90% of the time. The water was warm. I grabbed my “boogie board”… flogged myself into the water… and I was a teenager again.

It’s really hard to believe it’s already the well into June. The last few weeks have been quite a whirlwind. Wow… barely four weeks ago I was living in California and now I’m living in the Northernmost Caribbean. Yeah… it’s been quite a few weeks.

Finding a place to live here turned out to be a challenge. First I had to drag a U-Haul trailer, with all the stuff I would need for survival, all the way across the country. I arrived in Fort Walton Beach on the evening of the 20th. Almost as soon as I arrived I couldn’t help myself… I had to go to the beach. So trailer and all I went down to the “Boardwalk”. That’s my favorite place in Fort Walton Beach. I just had to go see the sugar white, powder soft sand of the Northernmost Caribbean. Oh… those luscious white mounds at the Fort Walton Beach. Errrr…. mounds of sand.

My first order of business was to find a place to live… that is, after visiting the beach. That turned out to harder than I thought. I really, really wanted to be within walking distance from the beach… and crawling distance from a local watering hole. When I was in Key West last year, I could stumble out of my place into any of several watering holes down on Duval Street. This year it didn’t look as if it was going to work out that way.

Trying to find a place at the beginning of summer isn’t a good plan. Every place I went seemed to be overburdened with folks looking for a place to rent but they all seemed to want durations ranging from a week to a month or two. But… in Florida, anything less than six months is considered a “hotel” and is taxed at 10.5%. So most of the “regular” places… apartments and such… require at least seven month long leases. I knew this from the beginning, but it seemed that thousands of people have descended on the area not knowing anything about this. So all of the places I was looking at were plagued with people clogging up the offices.

To make a long story short… the place I really wanted to stay was full and the only thing I could do to get in there would be to get on a waiting list. Well, there was no way I could stay in a motel/hotel until some day in the future when something would be available. So, I expanded my search to other areas along the Emerald Coast.

Hummm…. the name, “Emerald Coast”, was dreamed up by the chambers of commerce all along the “Northernmost Caribbean”. They got together to come up with a name that would attract tourists. Before they came up with “Emerald Coast”, the only semi-official name was the “Miracle Strip”… and “Miracle Strip” was really only used for the area around Fort Walton Beach. The name people used a lot for the region and beaches along the ocean was the “Redneck Rivera”.

Well, the Chambers of Commerce couldn’t let it stay known as the “Redneck Rivera”. So, they went through a long campaign to make the name “Emerald Coast” stick. And the world “Emerald” does a good job of describing the color of the water just a few yards off the shore. So not only do we have those luscious white mounds… of sand, we also have the emerald water. Just the same, I like the “Northernmost Caribbean” better and that’s what I’ll use from now on.

Anyway… my search for a place to live went all along the Northernmost Caribbean from nearly Pensacola to the West and Panama City to the East. Finding a place to live was hard work so I had to stop in to have a frozen concoction to help me hang on.

A frozen concoction to help me hang on.

Finally I found a place I could move into right away in Panama City Beach… the place where tens of thousands of college students flock every Spring Break. It meets all of my requirements… I can walk to the beach and crawl home from the nearby watering holes. I’m even close to a Margaritaville cafe… not close enough to crawl, but close enough to walk. Since they have live entertainment there every day, I suspect that I’ll be spending more than the occasional visit there to have a frozen concoction to help me hang on.

The place I ended up with is… well, paradise. This is my back yard. You can’t see it in this pic because it’s dark, but the tall buildings in this pic are right on the ocean.

I finally got around to writing my “about” for this blog. Part of the reason I procrastinated so long… besides the fact that I’m just a procrastinator… is that I just didn’t know what to put in here. I don’t have any problem writing about my travels, adventures, or opinion… but writing about myself… that’s a different matter. But here goes…

I always wanted to write but was making too much money to quit my “day job” and take a chance on becoming a writer. I spent the first half of my life getting my education… going to college part time and ending up with a Masters Degree in engineering. Now it was paying off. I couldn’t bring my self to quit working as an engineer and leave the good pay behind.

Well… circumstances caught up with me. Jimmy Buffett came into my life one morning while I should have been getting ready to go to work. That was the spark that started a change. Another of the things that came along was the book, “Searching for Kokomo-Diary of a Madd Cruiser.” (You can find the book by clicking here) Not long after that, I had a life-changing event… actually a couple of them. The short of it is that I spent most of my adult life on the work “merry-go-round” trying to catch the brass ring. I discovered that life is way too short.

I wanted off the “merry-round.” It took a bit of time to get my affairs in order… perhaps they really aren’t in order yet… but finally I quit my day job to start writing full time. Kokomo Man was born. I started on my travels and adventures. Kokomo Man was a screen name I used to write about those travels and adventures. Now… it has expanded to include this blog.

I am still cruising and going on as many adventures as I can. Some adventures are research for my writing and some of them just because I want to. I’ll be taking you along on most of the trips. Some will interest you and others won’t. Just the same, I hope I can put a smile on your face and share my adventures with you. Stay tuned.

NEWS FLASH – Avast! The dastardly pirate, Billy Bowlegs, be attacking the shores of the “Northernmost Caribbean” again. This year, like the fifty-eight years before, Billy and his krewe made their attack at the Fort Walton Beach Brooks Street Landing.

Billy was spotted off-shore early Friday evening. Rather than wait for the attack, the Honorable Mayor of Fort Walton Beach, Mike Anderson, decided to take matters in his own hands. He and the local militia surprised Capt’n Billy and captured him before any attack could begin. Bowlegs was put in a police car and taken away. However, most of the Bowlegs’ krewe escaped. The Mayor was worried that the krewe might spring him before he made it to the jail.

Arrrrgggghhhhh! Capt’n Morgan perhaps.

The Mayor had good reason to worry. Bowlegs was indeed “sprung” by the crew and there was a massive battle (aka fireworks) just a short ways off shore in the Santa Rosa Sound as Capt’n Billy made his escape. Then, on Saturday there was a massive attack and Bowlegs and his krewe came ashore in full force. It be hard to tell who won as “spirits” were high and everyone enjoyed the entertainment at hand. Arrrrggggghhhhh.

Dastardly pirates

The local militia ready to defend the shores of Fort Walton Beach.

Ok… It’s kinda corny. The Billy Bowlegs festival has been going on for fifty-nine years. Each year it always proceeds in about the same way… pirates invade and are pushed back to sea… then pirates invade again and everyone joins the party. And what it really is… is something cooked up by the chamber of commerce to drum up business for local merchants. It is a little like a county fair… without being a county fair.

And there are bands providing entertainment through the day and evening… some pretty good and some… well, let’s say it is still fun. There are lots of vendors set up in the park to sell you all kinds of food. They cook it right there on the spot on barbecues and the like. This year I actually ate some for the first time… so far I have survived.

The festival grew out of a water skiing festival held in 1953. Looking for a way to increase revenues the Chamber of Commerce came up with the pirate theme centered around the “notorious pirate” William Augustus Bowels”. Legend has it that Bowels piracy extended throughout the region of the Northernmost Caribbean… but then the legend is of “controversial authenticity”. The festival has continued to grow over the years and is now a huge event.

This is my fifth or sixth time to the Bowlegs festival. I can’t tell you why I keep coming back. Maybe it’s the “down home” feeling you get when you are there… maybe it’s the friendly atmosphere… or most likely it’s just that people there are all having fun. It has certainly become a way to spend a couple of afternoons for lots of people here in the “Northernmost”.

One of the things that attract throngs of people is the fireworks display. Now I have seen some very fine fireworks displays… Disneyland & Disney World put on great fireworks shows. That said, the fireworks at Bowlegs this year may have been the best I have ever seen. Literally, thousands of fireworks are shot into the night sky and they are orchestrated to put on an awesome display.

Of course, there is the pirate atmosphere. Lots of people dress up in some kind of pirate garb and somehow everything always seem to be more fun with pirate festivities.

Occasionally I take time out from my usual frivolity to contemplate the events of the day… or in this case to contemplate the historical events of the day. Today it has been 70 years since the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Initially a bit over 150,000 men went ashore that day… all of them knowing that the Germans defending the beaches would try to kill everyone coming ashore.

General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, sent those men into Normandy not knowing if the invasion would succeed. He had even written a speech to apologize to the people of the world that he planned on using if the allied troops were pushed back off the beaches.

Can you imagine what it was like for a soldier sitting in those landing craft heading toward the beaches? I can’t… there’s no way I can even fathom the thoughts in those young men’s minds at the time. They knew that many of them would die before the day was out. Yet… they still went ashore knowing what was waiting for them. Can you say “Heroes”…

I’m proud that my father was among those that went ashore. He was proud too. He was a Ranger… today we might call them “Green Berets”, or “Special Forces”. On D-Day my dad’s mission, as part of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, was to “take out” six 155mm cannon (“gun”) batteries on top of Pointe du Hoc. Point du Hoc was at the center of the American forces landings at Omaha and Utah beaches. These “guns” could/would have been used on our troops landing on the beaches. The Rangers sent to Point du Hoc were critical in keeping the artillery fire of the guns from raining down on the landing forces.

Pointe du Hoc was atop a sheer cliff. The Rangers had to climb the cliff using grappling hooks, ropes and ladders. All the time they were trying to climb the cliffs, the Germans on top were trying to stop them. My dad told me about one trick the Germans would use… they would put a “grenade” in a glass jar so that they could drop them from the top of the cliff without the grenade going off before it reached the American Rangers 300 feet below. When the jar hit, it would break and the grenade would explode a few seconds later.

There were 225 Rangers that “jumped off” for the invasion of Point du Hoc. By the morning of D+1 there were only 90 left that were able to fight. My dad was one of those 90. They were able to capture their objective and disable the artillery. The Germans were “pissed”. They savagely counter-attacked the Rangers and laid siege to their positions for the next two days. By the end of the three days, there were only 50 Rangers that had not been killed or wounded. They were out of nearly out ammunition and supplies. My dad was “hit” on D+3 shortly before relief arrived. (My dad was “evac’ed”, recovered from his wound and returned to the battle a few weeks later.)

As I mentioned earlier, I can’t imagine the bravery it took for those Americans, British, and Canadians (and others) to ride those landing craft (DUKWs – AKA “Ducks”) to the Normandy beaches. Those that rode the “Ducks” on June 6, 1944 changed the world. With the success of the Normandy invasion, over a million soldiers came ashore in a short time after D-Day. The bravery of those soldiers that went in on D-Day began the campaigns that would defeat the Germans and eliminate the Nazi dictatorship of Adolph Hitler.

There aren’t many of those heroes left now. If you are fortunate enough to know one or are able to meet one of them, say thank you to them. They changed the world.

Finally, summer has begun… officially for me and those in the “Northernmost Caribbean”. For a lot of people it has been a long, cold winter. Memorial Day is sort of the un-official start to summer, but in the Northernmost Caribbean it is officially summer. Thousands of people flocked to the beaches this week-end… including me. There is a commercial for charcoal that runs each year that is exactly how I feel as I emerge from the frozen tundra. (OK… I didn’t really live in the “frozen tundra” but I felt that way just the same.) Here’s a link to that commercial. Winter (YouTube link)

The great sugar white beaches are a great place to begin summer.

Memorial Day at the beach

Warm water and sun make it a great place to spend the week-end

I spent at least some time every day, starting on Friday and going through Monday, at the beach. And I visited my favorite Tiki bar for a frozen concoction to help me hang on. This is actually at the Ramada Inn on Okaloosa Island, Fort Walton Beach. It is a big hotel right on the beach. If you stay there you literally can crawl from the Tiki bar back to your room. It’s really a nice place, but this time of year be prepared to indenture your first born son if you stay there very long.

Ramada Inn Tiki Bar right on the beach.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night they had live entertainment right there at the Tiki Bar. John is the “one man band” that plays there in the afternoons every week-end of the summer. He has been playing there for years and people (like me) have been coming back to this Tiki Bar partly because of the party atmosphere and music John Brings with him.

It seems that there were a lot of people that had been having their frozen concoctions all day long. (Yes I have their permission to post this pic.)

Plenty of frozen concoctions to help you hang on at the Tiki bar

Another of the big activities on Memorial Day week-end is the “boat party” at “Crab Island”. “Crab Island” isn’t really an island. Instead, it’s sort of a sand bar where the water is only a few feet deep. People with boats come there to party with a few thousand of their closest friends. Just drive your boat up and pop a cold one. Don’t worry if you don’t have a cold one. There are vendors that bring out “barges” to sell you something cold to drink. And don’t worry if you don’t know anyone because everyone there make friends very fast.

“Crab Island” is usually quite a sight… there are thousands of boats anchored on and around the sand bar. The water is warm enough this time of year that lots of people are in the water… standing on the sand bar. It’s only a little ways off shore and some people will just swim out. But don’t be fooled, there are tidal currents there and you have to be a very strong swimmer to get out to the party. You’ll also have to dodge the Coast Guard that has a station there. The Coast Guard tries to prevent swimmers going to Crab Island. So, if you want to join the party and don’t have a boat, there are plenty of watercraft (canoes, jet skis, pontoon boats, etc) nearby to rent.

What a great way to spend a few hours making friends.

On the way to “Crab Island”

Party with a few thousand of your friends

The week-end, like all week-ends was over too fast. Now I’ve got to find a place to live.